I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to image processing, and more specifically to techniques for forming a panoramic image.
II. Background
Currently, panoramic images cannot be created in a camera device or a camera phone device. Instead, when generating panoramic images from individual digital images having some common overlapping region, it is required to load the pictures to a personal computer (PC) where software for creating panoramic images can be used. This software is not suitable for use in a camera device having limited power, memory and processing capabilities.
Moreover, some current methods for generating panoramic images are very time consuming and not user friendly. Oftentimes, the two images being used to create the panoramic image are rotationally offset. Thus, a panoramic image cannot be created or if one is created, it is visually unattractive. For example, the panoramic image of FIG. 4 was created using a conventional process on the images FIGS. 3A and 3B. While the conventional process was able to merge the two images of FIGS. 3A and 3B, the seam is diagonal and in a bad place.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to automatically generate panoramic images using a camera device or camera phone device, and does so automatically, with special care for correcting any rotational differences between individual images.